The Sane Society by Erich Fromm

There is a relationship between well-being and boredom, between economic progress and rates of suicide, madness, and addiction. Erich Fromm attributes this relationship to the way humans are treated under the capitalist system. Although capitalism has succeeded in achieving prosperity on the economic level and democracy on the political level, it has emptied human beings of their essence, causing them to lose their sovereign position in society. Humans have become subject to various external factors—affected by them without being able to influence them—and have also become estranged from their world, from the objects they use, and from their fellow human beings. Thus, this book outlines a new and different vision of a sane society, one centered on concern for human aspects, subordinating all economic, political, and cultural aspects to a single goal: human growth and the elimination of the mechanical life people lead.